Suffolk Homicide Squad detectives Tuesday continued searching for the killer of 15-year-old Liam Delemo, who was stabbed to death Monday evening at a house party in West Babylon, while the boy’s devastated parents mourned the sudden loss of their only child and made arrangements for his funeral.
“You don’t expect that phone call,” Mike Delemo said in a phone interview with Newsday on Tuesday afternoon. “Nobody does.”
Mike and Hope Wisun-Delemo said they knew Liam was going to attend the party on Carlton Road, just around the corner from their home in West Babylon, but trusted their son, a perennial honor student, to be home early. Then, Mike Delemo said, the couple received a frantic phone call from one of Liam’s friends about 10:30 p.m. Monday — telling them their son had been stabbed.
The two raced out of the house and went to the scene, getting there about the same time as the ambulance.
Mike Delemo said he found his son, on the deck outside the home, severely injured but still conscious.
“He was white as a ghost,” Delemo said of his son. “He had this huge gash on his left arm — and a big puncture wound on his left side, just below his ribs.”
“At that point, ” Delemo continued, “he was somewhat coherent. … He told us, ‘I’ll be OK. I love you.’ “
The Delemos said they followed the ambulance to Good Samaritan University Hospital, where they were told their son would be taken into surgery. Mike Delemo said though they were told Liam was in critical condition, the couple expected to be able to talk to him soon.
“Then,” Delemo added, his voice trailing off, “they told us he didn’t make it onto the table.”
Suffolk police responded to a person stabbed outside a home on Carlton Road in West Babylon on Monday night. Credit: Paul Mazza
Police said the stabbing occurred outside the home on Carlton Road.
In a statement describing the stabbing on Tuesday police said: “Between 90 and 100 teenagers were at a party outside the home … when a fight broke out and Liam Delemo was stabbed.” Additional details were not immediately available, police said, citing the ongoing investigation.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Suffolk police said the homeowner, identified as Bonnie Miranda, 70, had been charged with a violation of Suffolk County’s social host law and with endangering the welfare of a child.
Police said Miranda allowed her grandchild, who was not named, to have a party at the home.
Liam was an 11th grader at West Babylon High School. Principal Stephen O’Leary, in a letter Tuesday to “West Baylon families,” said the high school will operate on a delayed schedule Wednesday, with seniors starting at 10 a.m. and all students who take bus transportation asked to be at their stops at 9:30 a.m.
“The goal of tomorrow’s school day is to focus on supporting students’ emotional needs and provide an opportunity to meet with social workers, psychologists, counselors, teachers, and administrators,” O’Leary wrote in the letter. “These staff members are prepared to offer comfort, guidance, and care to all students during this time of need.”
On Tuesday, Hope Wisun-Delemo shared the devastating news on her Facebook page, which is filled with posts chronicling her son’s lifetime.
Vacation photos from two years ago: Liam on a trek to Seattle; shots of the Space Needle and Mount Rainier; talk of a drive down the coast to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. A visit to the pier in Santa Monica.
First day and last day photos each school year.
The boasts of a proud mom — Hope Wisun-Delemo is a middle school science teacher in Brentwood — announcing her son had made the honor roll again. Photos of her son as a baby.
There’s also a post relaying the sadness after her son’s good friend — Robert Buerkle, 17 — was killed in July when his motorcycle collided with a pickup truck in Babylon. Mike Delemo, who drives a roll-off truck for a living, said Tuesday how after that he simply told his son: “Be careful.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the Delemos spent a few hours making arrangements at a funeral home in Lindenhurst. Police ask anyone with information to contact Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392. All calls will remain confidential.
“You can ask any of his friends,” Mike Delemo said. “He could go anywhere and he fit right in. Everybody loved him. He was loved by everyone . … The person who did this knows they did this. They know. And, they can’t hide.”
Newsday’s Robert Brodsky contributed to this story.
John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee’pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.
